Sporting Dogs

Post Physio Appointment….

So… we saw the physio last week. She was also impressed by how well Raven moved and that was even after I told her that she seemed to move better than anyone expected. So that was good news. Raven felt good around her surgery site, there was no heat or tightness there and all seemed good. This is something that I was really worried about but apparently when the body is attached (ie. surgery!) it decides to sort of cramp up, so whilst healing up her muscles and everything were really tight which is probably why I was feeling the heat over the operation site.

She has got some tightness, mostly on the inside of her legs, one slightly more than the other but that explains why sometimes she doesn’t sit evenly or stand completely square. We used a pulse magnetic machine on her, she had to sit or lay on it and after about ten or so minutes, she then stood and sat perfectly, the leg wasn’t sticking out at all. I was amazed, impressed and most of all relieved. She has some tightness around her shoulders as well but I am pretty certain that is due to her pulling in her harness – which she is doing a lot of at the moment. She so wants to be able to run around.

We have some homework, which we have started and she is doing well with. It was a bit confusing for her to be up on the grass in the garden as she has literally never been allowed up there, as the dogs aren’t allowed up there over the winter but after getting over the ‘wow this is amazing and scary and wow there is a bird there’ she did some good work. She has to do her homework twice a day every day, so will try to stick to that as much as possible. If all we have at the moment is some muscle tightness whilst she is healing and growing, then that is something we can work with!

So then we reach the bit that is twisting my stomach. She is fine, literally fine, she moved well, she is happy running about and playing. She is a little over sensitive, her pain threshold is incredibly low, so she screams at almost nothing. So many people have asked why she can’t do agility and I am starting to struggle with reasons as to why not. The ironic thing is my issue is the weaves, the thing that puts the most pressure on the dog’s spine is those weaves…. but yet some of her homework from the physio is weaving! Granted physio weaves are slower and more careful then agility weaving but she is having to weave to build muscle, work on her flexibility. I want so badly to be able to do agility with her, we went to an agility show at the weekend and she is the only dog we have had that really found it interesting to watch. She loved it. It hurt.

I think I will try and do heelwork to music with her, when she has the go ahead to be off lead, even the physio said to leave anything till closer to the summer so will wait longer, do her exercises and build her up. I’m not the dancing type, not by any means but she will need to work and its a way we can work her and tailor it to her physical needs. I will also do her gundog training but not sure how many retrieves she could train in one go without me getting over paranoid about her.

Probably safe to say that agility is always going to be a bit of a kick in the gut though. She would be so good. Maybe will see if we can find any hoopers near by at some point, that would possibly be a good compromise.

Sounds silly really… talking about all the things she could or maybe can’t do… she is only 6 months and has her whole life ahead of her. Yet I had a lot of plans for this one and it is still hard to come to terms with that is all gone, especially when she is still so perfect for them all. Typical really. The physio gave a glimmer of hope that she could do agility safely but I just don’t know if I can do that, even if the physio eventually says yes she is safe to… could I do that to her? It would be for me, she won’t know any different.

So my puppy is fine, happy, a little tight in places but she is happy. Me, well I think it will be a while before I am in the same place that she is. Sometimes it would be nice to be more dog.

In other news, we have successfully left her home alone with Dill whilst Lily and Mozi are on the other side of the puppy panels. Hopefully that will all continue to carry on being positive, it will allow me to spend some more time with her. She has bonded closely to Paul which part of me is fine with, she doesn’t feel like my dog at times. Though realistically there are still plans I have that can possibly still happen and I do love her, so if she can spend more time at home then I can spend more time with her, do some training with her and finally bond with my puppy.

I promised I would give her a normal life, as much as possible. It is looking like she will have a normal life. Just hope everything just keeps improving…